The 80th Annual General Body Meeting of the Association of Surgeons of India was held 19.12.2020 at 9 Pm (Electronic Medium)

1. Meeting started with National Anthem

2. Welcome Address – President, Dr P. Raghu Ram

The President called the Meeting to order. As there was no Quorum, he adjourned the meeting for 15 minutes.

Meeting was resumed after 15 minutes and Dr. P. Raghu Ram welcomed Members to the Virtual General Body Meeting. He mentioned that due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, as it has not been possible to have an onsite ASICON and an onsite GBM with two-way interaction, after weighing all options, it was decided have GBM through electronic medium, which unfortunately has limitations.

He expressed his gratitude to Members for giving him the distinct honour by electing him to serve the Association as President. He conveyed his heartfelt thanks to Dr. Abhay Dalvi – Vice President, Dr Arvind Kumar – Immediate past President, Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jain – Hon. Secretary, Dr. C R K Prasad – Hon. Treasurer & Dr. Santhosh John Abraham – Director, Academic Council for all their exceptional help, advice and assistance during the year.

3. Condolence Resolutions

The Honorary Secretary Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jain displayed the names of members who left for heavenly abode during the year and the House observed a minute’s silence in memory of the departed souls.

4. Report for the year 2020 – Honorary Secretary, Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jain

Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jain presented the Honorary Secretary’s report.

5. Confirmation of the Minutes of the General Body Meeting held on 20th December 2019 in Bhubaneswar.

The President informed the House that the Minutes were included in the Annual Report of ASI 2020 that was circulated to Members, which was also posted prominently on ASI website. As there are no suggestions/comments from Members, he mentioned that they be considered as passed. He requested couple of members to propose and second in writing by email addressed to Hon. Secretary. Proposed by Dr. S P Somashekhar and Seconded by Dr. Pawanindra Lal.

6. Confirmation of Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held on 18th December 2019 in Bhubaneswar, 7th June (Virtual), 19th July 2020 (Virtual) 6th September 2020 (Virtual) and 13th December 2020 (Virtual).

The President informed the House that the Minutes of all EC meetings, except the one held on 13/12/2020 have been printed in the Annual report has been circulated to Members, and also posted prominently on ASI website. He requested that it may be considered as read.

He requested Hon. Secretary to read out the salient decisions taken during the EC meeting held on 13th December 2020. Dr. Sanjay Jain read them out. The President requested couple of members to propose and second in writing by email addressed to Hon. Secretary.

Proposed by Dr. L Sridhar and Seconded by Dr. Sanjay De Bakshi.

7. Audited Accounts Statement of ASI for 2019-2020 and IJS for 2019 -2020 – Dr. C R K Prasad, Honorary Treasurer

Dr. C R K Prasad appraised the House that the audited accounts, unaudited accounts and the budget for 2020 are available in the Annual Report, which has been posted on the ASI Website. He briefly outlined the salient features. The President requested couple of members to propose and second in writing by email addressed to Hon. Secretary.

Proposed by Dr. Rajgopal Shenoy and seconded by Dr. Ashwin K R.

8. Report on Academics & Regional Refresher Courses – President, Dr. P. Raghu Ram

President appraised the House regarding the intense academic activities held during the year. The academic activities started off in January 2020, which included 15 onsite Courses aimed specifically to empower trainees. ASI Basic Surgical Skills Course, ASI Basic Laparoscopic Skills Course, ASI, Anastomosis skills Course, ASI Critical Care Course and ASI Communication skills courses were held in Delhi, Mangalore and Hyderabad.

He outlined the monthly ASI virtual academic programmes that were held throughout the year, aimed at both practicing surgeons and trainees.

Since Jun 2020, he stated that 10 weekly National online Skills Enhancement Programmes (NSEP) were held aimed at both trainees and practicing surgeons.

Finally, he mentioned the highlights of the annual flagship RRC, which was also held online between August – September 2020.

President informed the House about his active role in the rejuvenation & promotion of ASI’s Facebook page, which attracted several thousand views during the conduct of each of the online academic initiatives held by ASI. He expressed his gratitude to Dr. Santhosh John Abraham for taking a lead in spearheading the online NSEP and RRCs and to Dr Abhay Dalvi for ensuring the huge success to the online academic initiative of ASI during the year.

9. Matters related to IJS – President Dr. P. Raghu Ram

President informed the House regarding the progress made by IJS over the past two years. The annual report of 2019 was presented to the Editorial Board on Tuesday the 29th September 2020. President also highlighted few other aspects relating to the Journal in 2020 – i.e.

1. The first response time to manuscript has been reduced from some 120 days to less than 30 days
2. Acceptance to publication time has been reduced from 200 days to less than 20 days
3. Number of manuscripts received and processed has gone up from approx.. 1000 per year to 2200 in 2020
4. The 5-year impact factor has risen from 0.587 to 0.726
5. The revenue earned by IJS in 2019 is Rs 71, 80, 000

President appreciated Dr. Sandeep Kumar, Chief Editor and Board Members of IJS for the tremendous work.

10. Declaration of Orators/Honorary Fellows/Symposia for the Year 2021.

Honorary Secretary, Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jain read out the names of the awardees for various Orations/Endowment Lectures for the year 2021, selected through a robust process. These names were approved during the virtual National Executive Committee meetings held on 6/9/2020 & 13/12/2020.

1. Col. Pandalai Oration 2021 – Dr.R Ravi Kannan, Silchar
2. Presidential Oration 2021 – Dr. Abhay Dalvi, Mumbai
3. Dr.P.K.Sen Memorial Oration 2021 – Dr. Devinder Pal Singh, Patiala
4. Dr.Das Mohapatra Oration 2021 – Dr.Kudige Jayarama Shenoy, Mangalore
5. Dr. Ramesh Nigam Memorial Oration 2021 – Dr. Sham Lal Singla, Rohtak
6. Dr. Jaipal Singh Memorial Oration 2021 – Dr. Mallipudi B V Prasad, Hyderabad
7. Brig. Dr. Rasamay Ganguly Memorial Oration 2021 – Dr.S V S Deo, Delhi
8. Prof. Krishnamoorthy Golden Independence Conference Commemorative Oration 2021 – Dr. Puneet, Varanasi
9. Prof. B. N. Balakrishna Rao Oration 2021 – Dr. Dilip Gode (By rotation)
10. Dr. Shrish K Bhansali Memorial Oration 2021 – Dr. Pramod Premchand Shinde, Nashik
11. Dr. Panchanan Chatterjee Endowment Lecture 2021 – Dr. Raaj Kumar Praseedom, Cambridge
12. A. K. Sen Sarma Memorial Endowment Lecture 2021 – Dr. Sanjay Kumar Bhasin, Jammu
13. Padmashri Dr. K. N. Udupa Endowment Lecture 2021 – Dr. Manas Kumar Roy, Kolkata
14. Dr. Santok Singh Anand Endowment Lecture 2021 – Dr. D G Vijay, Ahmedabad
15. Visiting Professorship of ASI in General Surgery 2021 – Dr. S.Vaidyanathan, Edapally
16. ASI Betadine Young Surgeon Award 2021 – Dr. K Senthil Kumar, Chennai

Honorary Fellowships 2021

Honorary Secretary informed the House that five nominations were received for conferment of Hon. Fellowships of ASI for the year 2021. These names were approved during the EC Meeting held on 13/12/2020.

1. Prof. Ronald Vitt Maier, USA: Jane and Donald D. Trunkey Professor and Vice Chair of Surgery, University of Washington School of Medicine
2. Prof. Yip Cheng-Har, Malaysia: Emeritus Professor of Surgery, University of Malaya, President elect, International Society of Surgery
3. Prof. Neil T Welch, UK: President Elect, The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland
4. Prof. Adrian Anand Anthony, Australia: Chairman, Board of Surgical Education & Training, Member of Council, The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
5. Dr. Vijay Narayansingh, Trinidad & Tobago: Professor Emeritus of Surgery, Department of Clinical Surgical Sciences, U.W.I., St. Augustine

Symposium 2021

Hon. Secretary mentioned that as there were no nominations received, Symposia would be decided by the EC during the course of 2021.

11. ASICON 2018 Report & Audited Report

President briefed the House that certain queries were raised by ASI Auditors to the Audited report submitted by ASICON 2018 Organisers. Subsequently, ASI Auditors raised some more queries to the reply from ASICON 2018 Organisers and the same have been forwarded to Organizing Secretary ASICON 2018. Dr Vinayak Senthil, Organising Secretary ASICON 2018 has assured of a prompt reply at the earliest.

12. ASICON 2019 Report & Audited Report

President informed the House that there are some discrepancies in the audit report submitted by ASICON 2019 organising Committee. He therefore constituted a committee headed by Dr. Abhay Dalvi with Dr. G. Siddesh and Dr. C R K Prasad as members of the Committee, to examine this issue.

13. ASICON 2021 – Venue confirmation, Visakhapatnam

14. ASICON 2022 – Venue confirmation, Mumbai

President informed the House that there were suggestions from several members and some EC members as well to postpone onsite ASICON 2020 until March 2021 and delay the handing over of Presidential responsibilities to March 2021. The President reiterated his firm stand that he took in the EC meeting held on 7/6/2020 stating that he would not like to expose even a single member of ASI to COVID 19, which was not going to go away by March 2021. He also stated in the same EC Meeting that he shall not hold on to the post of President ASI for even one day beyond what has been decided earlier. He therefore proposed in the EC meeting held in June 2020 that ASI shall conduct its 80th annual Conference through virtual platform on the same scheduled dates as was announced in 2019, which was
approved unanimously. Furthermore, the President stated that that the EC also unanimously approved in the same EC meeting that Visakhapatnam would be the venue for ASICON 2021 with Dr Ramana Murthy as Organising Secretary and Mumbai would be the venue for ASICON 2022 with Dr. Niranjan Agarwal as Organising Secretary.

15. Presentation of Election Result for the post of Vice President 2021 (President 2022) by Dr. Abhay Dalvi, Chief Election Officer & Vice President.

Dr. Abhay Dalvi, Vice President ASI & Chief Election Officer presented the Election report and Election results. He declared that Dr. G. Siddesh from Mysore won the election and shall be the Vice President 2021 (President 2022).

President congratulated Dr. G Siddesh on being elected as Vice President 2021 and President 2022.

16. Installation of President ASI 2021 – Dr. Abhay Dalvi, Mumbai.

President welcomed Dr. Abhay Dalvi, Mumbai to take over the charge as President ASI and wished him all success. Dr. Abhay Dalvi thanked Dr. P. Raghu Ram for his untired efforts during the year 2020.

Dr. P Raghu Ram requested Dr. G. Siddesh to say a few words.

Dr. G Siddesh thanked membership of ASI for electing him as Vice President 2021. He expressed his gratitude Dr. P. Raghu Ram, Dr. Abhay Dalvi & Dr. Arvind Kumar and the EC and commended the landmark initiatives undertaken by the Association during the COVID pandemic.

Dr. P. Raghu Ram announced that as it is not possible to have a two way interaction during this GBM, the agenda item “Any Other Matter with permission of Chair” has consciously not been included in the circulated Agenda to Members. He also announced that the Presidential collar would be handed over to incoming President Dr Abhay Dalvi after the National anthem and that the meeting would be adjourned thereafter.

17. National Anthem

After the National Anthem, The Presidential collar was handed over to Dr. Abhay Dalvi, who took charge as President ASI for the year 2021. Dr. Abhay Dalvi requested Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jain to continue as Hon. Secretary and Dr. C R K Prasad as Hon Treasurer during his Presidential term, and the meeting was adjourned.

Dr. P. Raghu Ram
President		 Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jain
Honorary Secretary
Categories ASI Updates, Updates